Hanging flights, closed subways, and water source: a Brazilian woman living in Europe describes the journey in the midst of a heat wave

Ingrid’s children play in a water fountain in London. (Photo: Ingrid Gomez Souza/Personal Archive)

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Empty streets and tube stations, the London Eye stopped, a river without boats picnic, children playing in the fountain, an open-air cinema. This is how Ingrid Gomez Souza describes the trip she took to London with her family in recent days, amid the heat wave hitting Europe.

The Brazilian, who has a family in Itapetininga (SP), has lived in the Netherlands for 15 years and said she has never experienced such hot days on the European continent. Ingrid currently lives with her husband and two children, ages 5 and 12, in The Hague, and decided to take advantage of children’s holidays to travel to London, UK.

She said that during the trip she had to reschedule the tour, as many establishments and subways were closed due to the heat.

“The London trip just happened because it was supposed to be a birthday present for my eldest son when he turned 10. But it went really well in 2020, during the pandemic, and we let the rail company postpone. So we decided to go on vacation now because it’s summer, but we fantasized That it will be calm because in the UK the temperature is always mild, and there is practically no summer,” says the Brazilian.

Despite the planning, Ingrid and her family were surprised by the record high temperatures. On Tuesday (19), thermometers around London Heathrow Airport reached 40.2 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature in UK history.

“We didn’t have the boat we wanted to do, and the London Eye was closed for two days. On Monday, we went to two museums because they had air-conditioning, and on Tuesday, we went for a walk with the kids at a water fountain on the street. It even had a list of fountains. that have been cleaned exclusively for kids to play with,” says Ingrid.

“Wherever I looked, everyone had a water bottle in their hands, and everyone was visibly tired. It had been a while since I was super hot, and the kids were tired,” he continues.

lack of structure

According to the Brazilians, Europeans suffered the most from the heat wave because cities did not have the structure to withstand the high temperatures. She commented that when she returned to the Netherlands after the flight, her house was very hot because the accommodation had soaked up the heat of the past few days.

“Just like in Brazil we feel cold inside because we don’t have a structure to cool, here we boil inside because houses are designed to keep the temperature. But after three days in the sun, the house starts to heat up and the heat gets inside. You keep frying” , explains.

Due to the lack of structure, Ingrid reported that many companies have given employees time off and the government has begun putting in place awareness programs for people to stay home on hot days.

Since the beginning of the heat wave in Europe, more than a thousand people have died as a result of rising temperatures, according to health authorities in Spain and Portugal.

Because of the high temperatures, fires began to be recorded in London, affecting roads and residential areas. In France, fires burned part of the forests in the south of the country, and dozens of people were forced to leave their homes.

Stephen Belcher, head of science and technology for the British government’s weather service, said the UK’s temperature record “is a true reminder that the climate has changed and will continue to change”.

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